When marketers use these silly phrases, it means that they’re probably wasting money.

I recently provided a list of 12 phrases to avoid in sales emails. Today, it’s phrases that marketers should avoid, not because customers hate them, but because the use of these phrases encourages bad marketing. Here they are:

1. “Demand creation”

Example: “This trade show is a demand creation activity.”

No amount of marketing can “create” demand. Either customers need a product or they don’t. If they do, then the demand is already there. If they don’t, then demand doesn’t exist. The most marketing can do is help connect the demand with the product.

This phrase results in bad marketing because it encourages marketers to think that their job is to do something to the customer rather than for the sales team.

2. “Drive sales”

Example: “This program will drive sales into new industries.”

This phrase implies that marketing is in control of the sales activity. But for every product that requires a salesperson, only a salesperson can makes a sale happen. All marketing can do is to help the sales group fulfill its goals. It’s not “driving” anything.

This phrase results in bad marketing because it folds the sales function under the marketing rubric, rather than the natural order, which is t’other way ’round.

3. “Brand equity”

Example: “This advertisement will increase our brand equity.”

The entire concept of “brand equity” is mostly a scam. While huge, instantly-recognizable brands (like Coke and Sony) do have value (though probably less than they claim), most brands could disappear off the face of the earth and nobody would notice.

This phrase results in bad marketing because the squishiness of the concept makes it impossible to measure whether any given marketing activity was worth the cost.

4. “Hot sales lead”

Example: “We passed some hot sales leads to the sales team.”

A sales lead is only “hot” if a salesperson can close it quickly. Because of this, marketing only knows whether a sales lead is hot after a salesperson has closed the sale. Declaring that a sales lead is hot before it closes is fundamentally wrongheaded.

This phrase results in bad marketing because it encourages marketers to judge the quality of sales leads based upon their own guesstimate rather than actual usefulness.

5. “Under embargo”

Example: “This product announcement is under embargo.”

Marketers use this phrase when sending out press releases, hoping that an air of secrecy will pique media interest. However, the PR folk would be absolutely delighted if they got some early ink.

This phrase results in bad marketing because business reporters have an attention span of about 10 minutes and delete anything that they can’t immediately write about.

6. “Investment”

Example: “We are making an investment in market research.”

With an investment, there’s a direct connection between the money you put in and the money you take out. If the connection is vague or indirect (as with most marketing activity), it’s spending not investing.

This phrase creates bad marketing because it encourages marketers (and everyone else in the company) to forget that marketing is always an expense.

7. “Robust”

Example: “Our new product requires a robust set of features.”

What does this word mean, exactly? For me, it conjures up the image of a red-faced, slightly-overweight, middle-aged guy wearing Speedos while running down the beach and calling out: “Hey, everybody, look! I’m robust!”

This phrase encourages bad marketing because it allows marketers to have arguments and discussions over a term that has no real meaning.

8. “Customer-focused”

Example: “This ad campaign is customer-focused.”

What? What? If a marketing activity isn’t about the customer, why would anybody bother to plan, fund or execute it? Shouldn’t everything be about the customer?

This phrase results in bad marketing because the fact that a marketing group labels an activity as “customer-focused” implies that some of what they’re doing isn’t.

The above is originally from: http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/8-phases-marketers-should-avoid.html

When was the last time you went to an event for your network marketing company? If you’ve never been or it’s been a while, I highly suggest you get to the next one. Not only will you be able to get some awesome MLM trainingfrom the top producers of your company, but the importance of team building is essential to your success in this profession.

I can hear the excuses already: it’s too far away, I can’t afford it, I can’t get off work, I can’t find a babysitter. And that’s just what they are: excuses. If you’re really serious about your company and creating an income from it, then you’ll find a way to make it work regardless of your current circumstance. It’s essential for you to get the right MLM training you need from you company; after all you’ll be learning from million dollar earners.

Why Team Building Is Important

My favorite part of going to events isn’t always the training & speakers. Yes I do love that aspect, but I also love meeting new people and being around my team. It’s the conversations and face to face interaction outside of the conference room that makes it worthwhile. Network marketing is a team activity, you cannot do it alone. Spending time with your team is important because that’s who you’re working with and when you allow friendships to develop you’re more eager to push each other to success. This is the importance of team building.

Can you understand why I think this is so important for you to be at your company’s events? That’s where the magic happens and gives you the push needed to help you hit that next rank. I appreciate the motivation, tips, and training from everyone I’ve met in this profession. It’s what has allowed me to keep pushing and never settling for second best. SO, get your butt to the next event where you can get awesome MLM training and spend time with your team – allow them to help you succeed.

I‘d like to meet the person who managed to sell MLM professionals on the concept of “easy”.

MLM marketing is like any other type of marketing. It’s challenging, competitive, and anything BUT easy.

Successful MLM marketing takes know-how, intelligence, and planning.

At HBSA, I’m sure you can imagine the amount of questions that we get on a daily basis. We work with professionals in all sorts of different companies, different opportunities, different backgrounds, and different skillsets.

One thing is for sure – the guy/gal that sold this concept of “easy” to our industry was pretty successful. We hear questions every day that reflect it.

“Is it easy to build a downline?”

“Is It easy to build my team?”

“Is it easier to grow X type of business or Y type of business?”

“Why isn’t this easier? Everybody needs X type of product in their home / life”

“I want my life to be easier, this business takes a lot of work”

Etc. Etc. Etc.

I get it. We all want easy. We’re fans of easy. Most of mankind thinks that an easy life is the best kind of life. No worries. No responsibilities. No headaches. Just wake up when you want, eat what you want, and coast thru the day on a big cloud of eeeeassssssyyyyyyyy…

If I meet the dude that sold this concept to the MLM industry, I’d punch him in the throat!

The reason is because this idea of “easy” has caused more damage, ruined more dreams, and disappointed more families than just about any other bad idea in this industry (likely, more destructive than all the other bad ideas combined)

Your upline or sponsor may not have informed you, but the truth is that business ain’t easy. No kind of business is easy, success in any endeavor takes concentrated effort, and the desire for easy is not your friend, but your enemy!

MLM Marketing Made Easy?

Some people say that there are no stupid questions. The same guy that invented that phrase is prolly the same guy that sold the MLM industry on the concept of easy money.

That guy was wrong. There are indeed stupid questions – terrible questions, and these questions yield terrible answers. Here’s an example of some such questions:

“Why can I never succeed?” (You can if you change your approach and take massive focused action)

“Why has God doomed me to perpetual failure?” (He hasn’t – a challenge in your life does not mean rejection from God)

“How does person X make success look so easy?” (Don’t look at the results – look at the price person X paid to get the skillset to achieve the results. Chances are you’ll find many things other than “easy success” behind them)

And another equally bad question is “what’s the easiest way to succeed in network marketing?”

They mindset of the person asking that question reveals what that person is focusing on – and unfortunately, it’s oneasy. If you are committed to easy, it’s going to be difficult to achieve much of anything in life. And the reason is because LIFE wasn’t designed to be easy.

Life – YOUR life – was designed to make you stronger – better – smarter – and more capable. It was designed to give you an opportunity to grow, to serve, to become bigger than the petty inconveniences and day to day challenges that we all face.

Life is your tapestry – the blank slate that you get to paint on. It’s certainly easy to not paint anything, but that doesn’t make a very remarkable work of art.

It’s easier to just set the brush down and eat some chips. Take a nap. Have a beer (or three). But then the picture doesn’t get painted, and the time that we have (the greatest gift in our lives) is wasted on pursuing petty comfort, rather than painting a remarkable picture.

Because if you’re committed to creating an amazing work of art, you don’t ask questions like “what’s the easiest way to paint?” You ask questions like

“what skills do I need to create the most AMAZING work of art?”

“What abilities do I need to create a piece of art that will impact and inspire others in the future?”

“What could I paint that would help my children and family long after I’m gone, to give them a sense of what my life was about, and in turn help them when they are struggling to create a great story for their own lives?”

In any endeavor, there are a finite number of skills that will lead to success.
In the network marketing industry, those skills are:

- Lead Generation(being able to generate the best possible leads for you and your team – and this goes well beyond chasing friends and family)

- Prospecting Mastery (being able to sort, and help others sort, the targeted prospects from the suspects)

- Presenting (being able to build value around a solution for your market)

- Closing (inspiring others to do business with you)

- Training (becoming a good teacher to pass along these skills to your team)

- Leadership (because all people have challenges, and you’ll need to help others overcome their own challenges/fears of success)

- Positioning (the subtle communication that lets your market know who you are, what you’re about, and what you represent)

That’s MLM marketing in a nutshell. So the best types of questions you could ask are:

“How do I get these skills?”

“Who are the BEST people to learn these skills from?”

“Who is someone that I know has mastered these skills, that I could model for my own business?”

“Is this worth the effort? Will this opportunity last?”

Those types of questions lead you to actions that generate success!

How Can HBSA Help With MY MLM Marketing?

HBSA has had the pleasure of working with and assisting over 150,000 entrepreneurs over the past few years. From our free newsletters to our coaching programs and everything in between, our goal is to help you master the skills of:

That’s what we do! And we use what we do every single day. Meaning, this stuff isn’t theory – it’s the same skills that drive our own businesses day in, and day out without fail.

If you’d like to see how we can help you, just register for our free webinar. We’ll show you how we use a very different MLM marketing strategy to achieve fantastic results for businesses and teams all over the world.

Final tip, find and join a system that will help you find prospects that ARE LOOKING for the item(s) that you are selling. In other words, you would want to be the HUNTED not the hunter. You need a way to ATTRACT prospects (this skill is known as Attraction Marketing). Now stop and think for a moment, what Network Marketing techniques are really working? Well if you ask me, it all boils down to following a proven time tested Network Marketing System. Now folks, you won’t need luck or magic. All you need to do is simply following a time tested marketing strategy, (for which MLSP plays a great part of) a Blue-Print System. Come on now! You don’t need to reinvent the wheel nor struggle in trying to figure out everything all by yourself (you’ll be able to join a very large Mastermind Group of similar Professional Entrepreneurs). Just by following this blue-print system, you will guarantee yourself success in growing your business. If you have time, check out this short video(click here..) that talks about MLMs and the various marketing strategies it provides. After watching the video, all you need to do is TAKE ACTION by signing up and start testing this MLM blue-print system NOW and really take care of you, your Online Business, and finally achieving that level of success that we NetworkMarketers call financial freedom!

"FREE High-Level Coaching: Join us Every Wednesday @9pm EDT for Invaluable Training Webinars Hosted by 6 & 7-Figure Earners Guaranteed to Help YOU Get More Leads, More Reps, and More Money in YOUR MLM Business!"